Software developer interviews have become more challenging over the years. Job seekers, whether they are seeking entry-level coding jobs or they are seasoned full-stack developers, need to be on top of their interview game. Gone are the days when the interview consisted solely of the “Tell me about yourself” kind of questions and short conceptual Q&As. Today’s job seeker is not only expected to answer those now-standard interview questions, but they must also be able to solve rigorous, mind-bending challenges with ease and grace.
As part of the curriculum at TurnToTech, our students are constantly challenged with mock interviews and coding challenges so that they will be prepared to ace tech interviews once they leave our bootcamp. We see this as a valuable teaching opportunity to empower newer developers who aren’t up to speed on the newest interview trends, as well as a refresher for those who have been coding for years but are now seeking new employment opportunities.
Because of the changing tides in the industry, we decided to host a meetup last week to dive into the topic of preparing for and mastering the tech interview. We were pleasantly surprised to have a full house with over 100 people in attendance from New York City’s tech scene, including front-end programmers, back-end programmers, full-stack developers, iOS and Android developers among others.
The event opened with a Q&A session by a panel of experts from some of the world’s biggest companies. Panelists included, Michael Batal, Managing Consultant & Senior iOS Software Engineer at IBM; Michael Prenez-Isbell, Former Director of Mobile Technology at Univision Communications Inc.; and John Bogil, iOS Developer at Viacom (and TurnToTech alum). Our panelists shared their experience with being both interviewed and interviewing for tech jobs, as well as provided helpful tips and insights into what job seekers need to know to solve tough programming questions and ace their interviews in today’s job market.
The night also featured an interview prep presentation by Aditya Narayan, CEO and co-founder of TurnToTech. Some of the topics discussed: the latest trends in tech interviews, multi-day take home assignments, timed live coding challenges, paired programming and white-boarding, just to name a few.
Here’s a quick example of one of the interview take home assignments that interviewees could face:
The evening concluded with a career-readiness overview by Teddy Angelus, COO and Head Career Counselor at TurnToTech. Below are selected slides from his talk:
By popular demand, we are hosting another Mastering the Tech Interview meetup on October 5th. You won’t want to miss this one! To RSVP, click HERE.